One Schnitzel, please

The international Racketlon Tour took a stop in Vienna Neudorf. Not only did they host the usual singles, doubles and mixed draws, there was also the Champions League. Straight from Swiss National League B to the Champions League went the aspiring team “RC Freunde freundlicher Feuerrackets” or FFFR. With the new found money from the Champions League, they went on shopping tour and acquired several top players from Rhine Valley and other clubs from Switzerland. The transfer almost led to a surprise victory against the Danish team Holbaek Racketlon Club with No. 5, 6 and 15 in the world. In the end a measly 5 points difference saved the Danes.

Energized by the knowledge of being able to keep up with the best, Michi Strässle (Der König von Ungarn for those on you on Facebook) went on to beat No. 25 and No. 8 (Uldis Zirkalis) in the world in one of his first A tournaments. It needed the eventual winner and World No. 2 Kasper Johnson to stop him in the quarters. He shared the 5th place with Benjamin Hampl who put another solid performance on the tour. A lot of matches from teams and mixed took a toll on Patrick Lorenz, who had tough first round opponent in the young Austrian Emanuel Schöpf.

Beat Ladner and Arno Graf fought valiantly in the (Wo)mens B tournament, won by Zuzanna Kubanova, with Arno almost taking home a medal. Adeline Kilchenmann and Tanja Omlin tried their luck in the womens B draw and both went home with a strong showing. Simon Engler in mens C had to pull out of the semifinals, finishing 4th. Could it have been one Schnitzel too many on Saturday evening? A new international player in Simon Zurschmiede also showed up to try his luck in the mens C.

On to the medal winners. Benjamin Hampl together with his Austrian partner Hans Sherpa secured bronze in the mens A doubles. The same could be said for the FFFR players Simon Engler and Michael Strässle in the mens B doubles. Adeline and Patrick harmonized really well to take home a silver medal in the mixed B category. And last but not least, our indestructible King (Graham) winning the seniors +60 category plus silver in seniors +45 doubles with his Israeli partner Avi Shemri.